I just received word that Anpetu, an avid seedsaver, passed away this last August, 2017. He was the proprietor of Sourcepoint Seeds.
Although it’s aways a sad and complex situation when a seedsaver passes away, I honestly didn’t know Anpetu personally. I only knew of his name. I can’t really say anything about him here.
If anyone has comments, please leave them below. If you have concerns about his seed collection, or perhaps outstanding orders, please either contact George Stevens directly, or me for George’s contact information.
I’m a friend of a friend of Anpetu. Is there a bio on him anywhere? I’d like to know more about him. John Hallum
Hi John,
I don’t know of any bio. Maybe someone else reading this can help us out? If someone has something, I’ll be happy to link to it or publish it here.
A bit of Anpetu’s life story and his work founding the South River Miso Company are found in William Shurtleff’s The History of Miso. You can pull up the book at Google Books. On page 1186, Anpetu’s story is item number 4058.
You know Wm Shurtleff from the Book of Tofu and the Book of Miso.
Update re Anpetu: The History of Miso is a PDF on the Soyinfo Center website: http://www.soyinfocenter.com/pdf/130/Miso.pdf
It’s 1378 pages, but you can search anpetu for all mentions of him – there are several.
He was a fine, highly intelligent and sensitiive human being and seeing his picture here made me very sad. I met him in the early 80’s in Western Massachusetts where he lived with Anna Bond. They were both serious involved with the macrobiotic community then and I’m fairly sure were they living today they would still be. Anpetu was given that name by the Lakota Sioux when he lived with them for a period of time and I recall him speaking of an elderly Native American woman living in New Mexico that he had reverence for and was in touch with. Petu was not a fan of the ills of modern life and we often spoke on the phone at length of this and of how badly things were going on the planet in so many ways. He lived the simplest of lives, was off-grid, grew and made a very modest living from his gardening and seed saving, practicing macrobiotics and at one time acupuncture to help people heal themselves. While married to Hannah who later changed her name to Anna and living near a zendo in Charlemont, Massachusetts they were hauling their own water, living simply without electricity, growing their food, eating simply and practicing Vipassana Meditation. Petu was a very serious meditator and sat many long courses, some for 30-days and he had a daily practice of an hour in the morning and one in the evening generally. He went to India to sit long courses as well. In later years we lived hundreds of miles apart so rarely saw each other but I remember going to see him while he lived near Hotchkiss Colorado where he’d moved years earlier. It was a very organic environment, food stores from his garden all around the small house he was living in, baskets and jars of seeds everywhere and often the smell of some kind of macrobiotic dish cooking that always involved brown rice I’m sure. He was huge on brown rice as are most serious macros! I tried living as a macro for a few years but lost weight, became anemic and not all that well so gave it up. The most impressive aspect of visiting him in Colorado was the feeling I had when I entered his meditation /sitting area. There was a very real element of calmness, peace and what Vipassana Meditators call metta or loving kindness there that he had created and shared around the planet. Happy to have met you Petu, thanks for all the world-shaking conversations, the tips on gardening, cooking, food, seeds and life. Although I miss you we’re deeply connected and that will one day somehow reconnect us! My metta to you!